Displaced people: Parachinar residents still fear returning home

Many complain of the insufficient provision of promised aid packages.

PESHAWAR:

The government is yet to materialise the promised economic package, worth Rs1.86 billion, for the rehabilitation of displaced people from Lower, Upper and Central Kurram Agency, leaving the uprooted people in the lurch.

Assadullah Khan, a resident in Parachinar, was displaced by the violence and now lives in the Kohat Development Authority in a rented house with 25 other family members. He said his family wants to go back to their homes, but fear terrorist attacks and bomb blasts.

We always wanted to go home because here the rent is Rs6,000, which is unaffordable,” Assadullah said. “We were ready to return, but the recent blast in Parachinar stopped us from going back,” he said. He also said the aid package provided to people displaced from the violence was not adequate because houses usually cost a minimum of Rs1 million, but the government gave them less than a third of that (Rs300,000).

Haji Attaullah Khan, a tribal elder and Parachinar Reform Committee general secretary, told The Express Tribune that the volatile situation in Kurram from 2007 to May 2011 led to 21,000 families migrating from their hometowns. He said that nearly 3,500 people had been killed, 500 were injured and 52 villages had been burnt and looted.

After the implementation of the Murree Accord in October 2011, locals thought normalcy had been restored, but the recent attacks, trying to create rifts between the Shia and Sunni communities, made it obvious just how precarious the situation is.

Attaullah said government authorities and elders at the jirga had decided to reopen the Thall-Parachinar road in October 2011 and give monetary compensation to the people affected by the violence. According to the pact, Rs1.86 billion had to be spent on the rehabilitation of the affected people, but they are still living in terrible conditions in Kohat, Hangu and Peshawar.

“Despite the agreement, the government has failed to resettle all the displaced people,” he said.

He added that it was feared that restoring peace has little chances in Kurram if the situation remains grim, and tangible steps are not taken by the authorities. Parachinar MNA Sajid Hussain Turi, who is also a member of a jirga that played a vital role in the passage of the accord, said the IDPs repatriation programme to Central Kurram has been started and the people of other areas were also reconstructing their houses in the areas.

“I have provided all facilities and cleared the entire road.  I don’t know why people are not returning to their areas,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2012.